Ask Jeeves is Officially Dead: The 90s Butler Was Here Before Google Started

Ask Jeeves is hanging up the suit for good. What the hell is Ask Jeeves, you ask? Well, you clearly weren’t around during the early days of the world wide web.

IAC quietly pulled the plug on Ask.com on May 1, ending a 25-year run for one of the most recognizable faces of the dial-up era. Just a farewell message on the site that read: every great search must come to an end.

If you’re not familiar with IAC, it’s a massive American holding company that has made a career out of building and spinning off huge digital brands. Expedia, Match Group, and Vimeo all came through IAC at some point. The firm also runs an enormous media portfolio through Dotdash Meredith, which owns titles like People, Investopedia, and Better Homes & Gardens.

For anyone who grew up online in the late 90s, Ask Jeeves was a genuine part of what made the early internet feel alive, back in 1997 (yes, that’s before Google went live in 1998 and gave us accurate search). The whole premise was charming and a little ridiculous: a cartoon butler in a waistcoat who would answer your questions in plain English, at a time when every other search engine wanted you to type in keywords like you were programming a fax machine.

It just didn’t last long enough to matter. Jeeves the mascot was phased out in the mid-2000s and Ask.com spent the years after that trying to find some kind of footing in a world Google had already locked up. IAC, which has been cutting things that don’t fit anymore, apparently decided there was nothing left to try.

“We are deeply grateful to the brilliant engineers, designers, and teams who built and supported Ask over the decades. And to you—the millions of users who turned to us for answers in a rapidly changing world—thank you for your endless curiosity, your loyalty, and your trust. Jeeves’ spirit endures,” concludes the Ask.com website.

For a certain generation from the 90s, this one stings a little as it makes you feel real old. Ask Jeeves was never the most powerful search engine. But it was proof that the early internet had a personality and wasn’t afraid to show it. Now the big question remains–what’s coming next on Ask.com?